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The answer that leaps to mind is Tenra Bansho Zero, though I don’t know if the intent here is to limit answers to games released in the last year or not. I’ll proceed regardless.

I originally backed TBZ solely because I’d seen Andy Kitkowski talking about it for, literally, years and years on various fora. I’m not really much of an anime fan, and I have no special attachment to Japanese tabletop RPGs, but #TBZ seemed like such a herculean labor of love that I felt obligated to give it a look-see. The fact that luke crane was doing layout (and heaping praise upon the game) also was a selling point for me.

The surprise, of course, was that I totally fell in love with the game, actually managing run more than a few sessions. I also found it one of the best-written RPG texts I’d ever read, a testament to both author Junichi Inoue and to Andy’s wonderful translation. Honestly, I felt like I learned something just by reading the book; I think it made me a better gamer, maybe even a better person.

Plus, it was hella fun to play. I’d really like to get back to it at some point.

Really, if you give a shit about RPGs, you should have a copy of TBZ on your shelf.

It’s a neat system that works very well with the character sets, but I think it would help A LOT if more than just the GM knows the mechanics. The Emotion Matrix alone is clever and fun. There is plenty of fruitful creative constraint, and plenty of void to fill with invention.

< ![CDATA[It's a neat system that works very well with the character sets, but I think it would help A LOT if more than just the GM knows the mechanics. The Emotion Matrix alone is clever and fun. There is plenty of fruitful creative constraint, and plenty of void to fill with invention.]]>